The day will tentatively start at 10 a.m., meeting location to be decided, and will culminate with “The Wrecking Ball” from 6 until 10 p.m. on the grounds of the 1830’s Chalmers Institute. This annual event is put on by Preserve Marchall County Inc. with the goal of of preserving Chalmers Institute, Mississippi’s oldest chartered university. The Wrecking Ball event will include dinner, a silent auction and a live art auction, as well as appearances by several artists, authors, musicians and historians who have donated their appearances for the evening.

Chalmers Institute, the oldest university building and the second oldest school building in the state, was originally built in 1837 with publicly raised funds, becoming part of the University of Holly Springs in 1838. The intent was for the school to become the state university in Mississippi, an effort that ultimately failed when the University of Mississippi was located in Oxford. Subsequently, this building operated as the Chalmers Institute and then the Holly Springs Normal Institute for many years.

For more information and if interested in attending, contact Tracy Ward, Mississippi chairman of the ICAA, at tracy@benchmarkward.com.

A group of architects has won the Downtown Memphis Commission’s South Main Design Challenge, submitting a plan to turn a vacant lot into a gathering and performing space.

The DMC started the competition late last year to generate concepts and ideas for seven underused spaces and buildings in South Main.

Thirty-eight teams competed in the challenge, which presented proposals for short-term and long-term uses for the spaces.

The DMC picked an idea from BR:CK, a team which includes architects Ryan Morris (MSU S|ARC 2012) and Brendan Lawton with Belz Architecture, Chris Hoal (MSU S|ARC 2012) with Gresham, Smith & Partners, and Kevin Pasley, a University of Memphis architecture student.

Their $5,000 concept is to turn the vacant Buffalo Mural lot near the Memphis College of Art Graduate School into a short-term neighborhood gathering and performance space as a venue for artists, events and community groups.

Their long-term plan for the space is Roam the Market, a year-round store that would serve as an extension of the Memphis Farmers Market. This would include an art and sculpture garden, patio and deli.

The team won a $1,000 cash prize from the Downtown Memphis Commission.

A member of the Mississippi State architecture faculty is part of a four-person team receiving the American Institute of Architecture’s prestigious Latrobe Prize.

The $100,000 research grant this year is going to associate professor David Perkes, director of the university’s Gulf Coast Community Design Studio in Biloxi; Bryan Bell, executive director of Design Corps; University of Illinois at Chicago professor Roberta Feldman; and Sergio Palleroni, senior fellow for the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State University.

The honor recognizes their proposal, titled “Public Interest Practice in Architecture.” The team will “investigate the needs that can be addressed by public interest practices and the variety of ways that public interest practices are operating.”

Perkes has led the Harrison County studio since 2005, when it was established to provide architectural design and planning services, and leadership to Mississippi coastal communities affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Perkes said their research will focus on three questions: what are needs that may be addressed by public interest practices; how current public interest practices are operating; and what is necessary for public interest work to become a significant segment of architectural practice?

“Our research will benefit the public, in part, from the knowledge gained about the public’s needs and the effectiveness of architectural practice to address those needs from the surveys and interviews,” Perkes said. “Our objectives overall are intended to strengthen existing practices and to provide guidance for the development of a public interest component for a significant segment of architectural practice.”

The grant, named for architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, is awarded biennially by the AIA College of Fellows for research leading to significant advances in the architecture profession. (For more on the AIA, visit www.aia.org/.)

Seventeen Mississippi State faculty members are new selections for the competitive 2013-2014 Hugh Critz Faculty Leadership Program.

Sponsored by the university’s Office of Research and Economic Development and Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President, the program works to develop the next generation of campus academic leaders, among other goals. It honors the memory of the land-grant institution’s eighth president (1930-34), a Starkville native and an MSU alumnus.

“Mississippi State has a tradition of strong and effective leadership on our campus and in the communities we serve,” said David Shaw, the university’s vice president for research and economic development.

“The Faculty Leadership Program builds on that foundation and helps outstanding faculty members further develop the skills needed to lead the university forward in its mission of teaching, research and service in the future,” he explained.

During the 10-month program set to begin in September, participants will be part of various presentations and roundtable discussions with top administrators. Session topics include leadership styles, organizational change, diversity, building winning research teams, and organizational evaluation and assessment.